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No Biggar but Lawes set for a 'reunion' with Henderson in Belfast
Northampton have made six changes to their Champions Cup starting XV to take on Ulster on Friday with the absence of injured Lions No10 Dan Biggar and the return of his fellow 2021 tourist, England’s Courtney Lawes, catching the eye. The talisman from Wales played just 45 minutes of last weekend’s round one loss to Racing 92, hobbling off to be replaced by Rory Hutchinson.
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With Biggar unable to shake off the injury, Northampton have chosen to hand the No10 jersey to George Furbank, last week’s starting full-back. Furbank’s spot at No15 will be filled by Ahsee Tuala, who will make his first start of the season.
The other Northampton changes see Ollie Sleightholme come onto the right wing for Tommy Freeman, Alex Waller is at loosehead for Nick Auterac, Mike Haywood at hooker for Sam Matavesi, Lions tourist Lawes is at blindside for Karl Wilkins while Tom Wood is the No8 in place of Juarno Augustus.
Ulster, meanwhile, have boosted their side with the return of their Lions tourist Iain Henderson, who is one of three changes to their XV following their round one win at Clermont. Prop Marty Moore and winger Craig Gilroy are the other changes for a match that will also feature newly arrived Springboks forward Duane Vermeulen at No8 following his away debut last weekend.
The prospect of Henderson going up against Lawes in the Ulster versus Northampton forwards battle has the potential to be spicy following remarks made by the Irishman about how his English rival was a Test starter on the Lions tour in South Africa. Not getting a run grated with Henderson, who singled out how Lawes was a favoured Warren Gatland pick despite his lack of pre-tour games in 2021.
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“A bit of evidence of that would be Courtney Lawes, for example. Hadn’t played a lot of rugby, was injured going in, missed a lot of rugby, comes in as a bit of a surprise maybe and starts all three Tests,” claimed Henderson when interviewed in September on BBC Sport Northern Ireland’s Ulster Rugby Show. “Don’t get me wrong, Courtney is a class player and he probably deserved to be playing.
“But that would lead you to believe that he [Gatland] wasn’t picking on who was on form at that stage because Courtney had already banked his form from before. He [Gatland] told me I had trained really well, played really well and it unfortunately just didn’t work out the way I wanted it to be… at the end of the day it’s the top dog’s decision and I wasn’t there.”
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ULSTER: 15. Mike Lowry; 14. Craig Gilroy, 13. James Hume, 12. Stuart McCloskey, 11. Ethan McIlroy; 10. Billy Burns, 9. John Cooney; 1. Andrew Warwick, 2. Rob Herring, 3. Marty Moore, 4. Alan O’Connor, 5. Iain Henderson (capt), 6. Marcus Rea, 7. Nick Timoney, 8. Duane Vermeulen. Reps: 16. John Andrew, 17. Jack McGrath, 18. Tom O’Toole, 19. Kieran Treadwell, 20. Sam Carter, 21. Greg Jones, 22. Nathan Doak, 23. Stewart Moore.
NORTHAMPTON: 15. Ahsee Tuala; 14. Ollie Sleightholme, 13. Matt Proctor, 12. Fraser Dingwall, 11. Courtnall Skosan; 10. George Furbank, 9. Alex Mitchell; 1. Alex Waller, 2. Mike Haywood, 3. Ehren Painter, 4. David Ribbans, 5. Api Ratuniyarawa, 6. Courtney Lawes, 7. Lewis Ludlam (capt), 8. Tom Wood. Reps: 16. James Fish, 17. Emmanuel Iyogun, 18. Conor Carey, 19. Alex Coles, 20. Juarno Augustus, 21. Tom James, 22. James Grayson, 23. Rory Hutchinson.
Comments on RugbyPass
I knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
102 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
102 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
102 Go to commentsHo hum.
102 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
102 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
102 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
102 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
102 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
102 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
102 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
102 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
102 Go to commentsI'm happy for the people of SA to get a second WC. And I mean that. I was very disappointed with this man's “stand on the hand” incident with Josh Van Der Flyer (Ireland). Ireland's downfall in the last WC was they did not rotate their first 15 as the head coach probably should have. That said, I'm happy for SA and genuinely hope it lifts the mood in their country. Ireland did beat them in the first match of the tournament. And before the trolls start trolling ….. please don't bother. Etzbeth said recently that the Irish players said after the match “see you in the final”…..this was actually wishing the SA team the best of luck in the rest, the Irish team were not dismissing the AB’s. This is what Etzbeth was implying. But he was wrong. I no longer live in Ireland. But I hope to see them lift that cup before I pass. Anyway, congratulations SA. 👍
12 Go to commentsMore bloody click bait. Dan Carter has said absolutely nothing. As he should do. Poor journalism again from a site that should know better
9 Go to commentsOh god please help these loosers get over it!!!! You lost. Doesn't matter how many times you dummies are gonna analyse the game, you still lost and we are still Rygby World Champions….get over it, you lost.
102 Go to commentsThe next Willie le Roux. SA are made not to use him.
3 Go to commentsDan has always been as controversial as tea with milk so we were never going to get any definitive answer. So DMac for the win.
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